Q1, S08 Good News
Question 03:
WILL YOU LEARN FROM ME?
Jesus is well known as a good teacher. As he talked to the crowds and worked with his disciples, he would take key opportunities to teach them. In essence, Jesus is asking them—and also us—“will you learn from me?” This is a vital question. We all know many of the things that Jesus said. But there is an important difference between hearing the words of Jesus and actually learning from Jesus.
Tool: The Three Circles
Our tool for this section provides one helpful way to consider what it means to truly learn from Jesus. This tool is the three circles, which represent the words, works, and ways of Jesus. The goal is to see, embrace, and embody all three elements. When we have all three elements in place, then we are truly living like Jesus, which is another way of saying that we are living in love.
The danger, however, is that we tend to focus on one of three. Some of us (and some churches) are more prone to focus on the words of Jesus. Obviously the words of Jesus are essential—we cannot be with Jesus or be like Jesus if we neglect his words. But focusing on the words of Jesus to the exclusion of the works and ways of Jesus is what we might call the scholar’s approach. It makes us knowledge focused. In these situations, we can all too easily wield the words of Jesus (and by extension the whole Bible) as a weapon that we use against the very people we are called to love. But if we put the words of Jesus in context with the works and ways of Jesus, we have learned to live in love.
Others are prone to emphasize the works of Jesus to the neglect of the words and ways of Jesus. This we could call the activist’s approach. Here, we can get caught up in powerful things that Jesus did and the challenges he laid before the authorities of his day. We should, of course, be doing the works of Jesus, but if this is divorced from Jesus’ words and ways, then we are not truly living in the love of Jesus.
Still others focus on the ways of Jesus to the exclusion of the words and works of Jesus. Again, imitating Jesus’ humility, compassion, and love is incredibly important. But when we neglect the words and works of Jesus, this leaves us in what we might call the existentialist’s or mystic’s territory.
We can also see from the three circles that we get a variation of these distortions when we focus on any two circles while leaving out the third. If we add the works of Jesus to the words of Jesus, for example, we are basically zealots. These two elements are good, but without the ways of Jesus, we are still missing his heart. Similarly, focusing on the works and ways of Jesus without the words of Jesus makes us humanitarians who do good things in good ways, but are left without the truth that Jesus proclaims. And combining the words and ways of Jesus basically makes us counselors who can provide helpful guidance to others but who fail to act as Jesus would have us act.
It’s important to see that none of these circles is bad. When we overemphasize one of these circles, we are not introducing some foreign, evil element. But this is precisely what makes religion so deceptive and destructive. The lesson of the three circles is that we can be attempting to follow Jesus—we can be actively imitating him—and yet still miss his heart. For example, we can use Jesus’ words in a way that makes us utterly unlike Jesus! That is a terrifying and ugly thought, and yet it is reality for many in the church. So the key is not to get anyone to stop doing the works of Jesus, or to stop learning the words of Jesus (and by extension the whole Bible), or to stop embracing the ways of Jesus. The key is to dive deeper into who Jesus is, and to help each other embrace all three circles in ever more meaningful and all-encompassing ways.
To shift the diagram one more time, this is all another way of considering Jesus’ call to love the Lord “with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.” If we take the soul to be an overarching category here, loving the Lord with our minds means thinking right things, loving him with our strength means doing right things, and loving him with our heart means feeling right things. Again, each of these elements is essential, but it’s only when we put all three together that we can truly love God and other people as Jesus does.
As we look at a few passages in this section in which Jesus calls us to learn from him, keep the three circles in mind. We all have a tendency toward one or two of the circles, so this too can be a corrective that helps pull us back toward the center.
Quarter 1, Session 8: Jesus Proclaims Good News
IS THE GOSPEL GOOD NEWS TO YOU?
Passage
Luke 4:16–30
Concept
This session falls under Jesus’ third question: Will you learn from me? As Jesus spoke in a synagogue in Galilee, he announced that good news had arrived. He himself carries that good news, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor, the captives, and the oppressed. Too often, the gospel becomes old, boring, or irrelevant news to us. We treat it as a religious sentiment. But Jesus is good news, and he is truly good news for us provided we are ready to come to Jesus and learn from him. To understand Jesus fully, we must learn to see him as he truly is and find all of the ways that he truly embodies good news for our lives and our world.
Key Question
How does the gospel of Jesus strike you as good news? If the gospel feels more like a religious belief than an actual announcement of good news to you, how might you be misunderstanding who Jesus is and what he came to do?
The Three Circles Tool
Do you see our tool of the three circles being played out in Luke 4:16–30? With whom? How so?
Jesus Proclaims Good News
Have you ever been in a situation where the word “captive” was appropriate? Some know what it’s like to be in an actual prison, to be literally locked into a place. Others know what it’s like to feel trapped in a relationship, an agreement, or an addiction. Some situations are more intense than others, but being a captive means being held in a position where you’re controlled, where you can’t break free, where you have no way out. The feeling of despair in these situations is overwhelming.
When was the last time—what was the last situation—where you really wanted to change something but felt powerless to do it?
Good News
We sometimes think of the gospel as a cliché religious sentiment. Too often, we have taken the gospel and reduced it to a simple statement that we either believe or don’t, a prayer that we either pray or don’t. But “gospel” literally means “good news.” And it doesn’t come in a vacuum. It’s not just a short religious mantra.
Vital to our understanding of who Jesus is and what he’s doing in the gospel is the simple acknowledgment that the “good news” is actually good news!
In other words, the gospel is news that gets announced to those who are in a desperate situation. To those who find themselves trapped, enslaved, oppressed, forgotten, and marginalized, Jesus comes and proclaims that there is good news. A change is happening! New life is being offered! Your terrible situation is not the final word, something big is happening!
When it feels like we are completely trapped, the good news truly brings freedom. And it comes out of nowhere. We aren’t expecting it. The good news is that there is freedom even when we least expect it. Even when we can see no way out. This is precisely when the King comes and offers freedom.
1. Read Luke 4:16–30. Right off the bat, what strikes you about this passage? What do you find interesting or challenging or confusing?
Good News for Whom?
Jesus’ announcement that the good news was being fulfilled in him came as he read from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. And those words were written for specific people: the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed. Before we fill in the word “gospel” with all of our modern Christian connotations, we should first consider what the word would have meant to those marginalized groups Jesus was speaking about.
2. What do you think it means to “proclaim good news”? What do you think Jesus had in mind when he read this prophecy?
3. How do you see this proclamation of good news play out in the ministry of Jesus?
4. What do you think proclaiming good news would look like in your setting today? Have you seen any good examples of this in churches you’ve been part of? Or do you get the sense that the modern church has turned the proclamation of good news into something different than Jesus intended? Explain your answer.
We have a tendency to translate “poor” into “spiritually poor,” and this is partially right. But we shouldn’t dismiss the reality that Jesus also offered good news to the physically poor. When God sets the world to rights through Jesus’ return, there will be no more poverty, no more suffering of any kind. It’s wrong to say that Jesus doesn’t care about physical needs, as if we were simply spiritual beings. God made our bodies and our physical world, and he cares for our physical needs (see Matt. 6:25–34). So the gospel is good news to those who are physically malnourished and oppressed. God acts—often through his people—to meet the physical needs of those who suffer.
But the gospel is also good news to the spiritually poor. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to pray that their trespasses (sins) may be forgiven (Matt. 6:12–15). Paul tells us that through Jesus the record of debt that stood against us has been cancelled (Col. 2:14) and that Jesus, who was rich, became poor so that we, who were poor, might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
The good news is quite simply good news. Think of it any way you can imagine. If you’re feeling either physically or spiritually malnourished, the gospel is unquestionably good news to you. It’s fulfilled in Jesus. There is a king who is looking out for his children. He is here for you. He cares for you, no matter what your need is, no matter how great your need is.
5. As you consider your life right now, in what sense is the gospel good news to you right now?
The Year of Jubilee
Jesus also portrays the good news as a proclamation of “the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is a reference to the Old Testament concept of the Year of Jubilee (see Leviticus 25). Every fiftieth year, Israel would celebrate a Jubilee, in which every debt would be cancelled, every slave would be set free, and every bit of property would be returned to its original owner. It’s a grand resetting of the playing field. Reading about the Jubilee today feels very un-capitalist and un-American. But we need to remember that Jesus is not a capitalist or an American. He is simply the King and Savior of the world.
The good news is that Jesus is proclaiming God’s favor over us, not because of our works, but simply because of his love. How do you think God views you today? Do you think he sees you as a failure? As a success? We inherently respond to questions like these by thinking of the things we’ve done good or bad. We tend to stand so much on our works. But the gospel always levels the playing field.
The gospel is bad news for those who think they are favorable. But it’s good news for those who know they are unfavorable. God is so liberally free with his love, and that irritates the religiously-minded. But this is the very essence of the gospel: Jesus brings good news, not for those who are already doing great, but for those who are in need.
6. Try to assess yourself honestly. Is there any sense in which the gospel feels like bad news to you? Or even just irrelevant or boring news? If the gospel feels more like a religious belief than an actual announcement of good news to you, how might you be misunderstanding who Jesus is and what he came to do?
Will You Learn from Me?
As Jesus spoke to the people in Galilee, which was his home region, he gave some examples of events that God had done in the past to illustrate that “no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.” The scary point of these stories is that often, those who think they know God best don’t know him at all. Sometimes those who think they understand Jesus are the last people to actually recognize when he is at work.
Could this be our problem? Our question in this section comes down to whether or not we’ll truly learn from Jesus. We’re in danger of being a people who hear but don’t learn. We could be those people who don’t respond to Jesus when he’s in our midst. The question is not whether or not we hear Jesus’ words, but whether or not we will truly learn from him when he speaks to us.
7. Spend some time in prayer. Thank God for the good news that comes to us through Jesus. Pray for eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that are eager to truly learn from him as he speaks and directs us.
Key Question
How does the gospel of Jesus strike you as good news? If the gospel feels more like a religious belief than an actual announcement of good news to you, how might you be misunderstanding who Jesus is and what he came to do?